Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c8.46

c8.46

**Its Varieties.** It will also appear that *Yajñas* were necessarily of different kinds according to the different kinds of offering made at them. The offering may be material or spiritual. As is stated in the text: "*Dravyaya jñāstapoyajñā Yogayajñāstathāpare Svādhyāya-Jñāna-yajñāścha*"; " *Yajñas* are of different kinds: (1) *Dravya-yajña* where material objects are offered as oblations, objects which appeal to and indulge the senses; (2) *Tapoyajña* where all desires and out-going activities are offered to be consumed in the fire of asceticism and penance; (3) *Yoga-yajña* where senses are sacrificed at the fire of *saṁyama* or self-control, the practice of detachment; and (4) *Svādhyaya-Jñāna-Yajña*, *Yajña* in the form of study of the Veda and pursuit of knowledge by *brahmacharya*. Rigveda i, 84, 2 mentions the *Yajña* of Ṛishis by means of *stuti* or prayer and of mortals by sacrifice, while i, 18, 7 refers to the *Yajña* of sages in their pursuit of knowledge. These texts thus refer to different kinds of *Yajña* depending on different degrees or kinds of sacrifice to suit different stages or degrees of spiritual progress achieved by the *Yajamānas* concerned. The highest grade of *Yajña* for man is thus described in the *Bhagavadgītā*: "*Brahmārpaṇaṁ Brahma-haviḥ Brahmāgnau Brahmanā hutaṁ | Brahmaiva tena gantavyaṁ Brahma-karma-samādhinā*"; "Life itself is the great sacrifice where Brahma Himself is at once the Yajamāna or sacrificer, the fire where sacrifice is offered, the material of the sacrifice (*havi*), the God to Whom sacrifice is offered, Whom one attains by living his life as if it is *Brahma-karma* or an offering of all its fruits to Brahma in total absence of desire."